Build and Manage a Sales Pipeline with These Free (or Almost Free) Web Tools

Whether you deal with sales prospects yourself or manage a team of sales reps, getting a complete view of your company’s sales pipeline is no easy task — in fact, it requires constant maintenance and updates to get a picture that is as close to reality as possible.

In this post I will show you how to set up a simple and (almost) free sales pipeline to help keep track of how well your business is doing with its sales initiatives.

Use Online Marketing to Find Potential Clients

Unless you are entering your market with a huge database of clients that are lined up to buy your products and services, you will have to invest a good amount of time and money in advertising and marketing.

My colleagues at AllBusiness and I have written several posts about marketing and how to get it right. You can find useful information about website tools, website performance, marketing apps & tools and banner advertising. For more information I highly recommend checking out SEOMoz for their absolutely fantastic marketing guides. That’s where I found this infographic that lays out all the possible marketing channels that can turn any visitor into a client.

Without previous insight about your market, you will probably need try out almost all of these channels because your most profitable sources will only reveal themselves after some time. (Check out what’s known as the “Pareto principle.”)

When managing multiple marketing campaigns and handling many channels at the same time, automation becomes a crucial aspect — a time-saver that you will definitely learn to appreciate very quickly. Zapier is one of these automation tools that help you work more efficiently by automating recurring tasks.

Give them a good reason to do so. Do you offer a free trial? Dollar amount credit? First round free? 10% off until the end of the month? You decide, but find something that offers a benefit you believe will resonate with your clients and use that to initiate a first contact.

Let’s use a practical example: John Fisher found your website and is eager to explore the 14-day free trial of your online Spanish course.

Melanie Haselmayr is the CEO of Mevvy, The Next Generation Tool & App Store. Discover apps, web tools, software and useful websites for any device and operating system. Get all the info you need on one screen, watch how-to videos, rate apps, and get inspired by articles on how to make the most out of your tools and apps. Follow Melanie on Twitter @mevvysupport and @melihaselmayr.